GCDC 2016 is part of the international project i-GAME (Interoperable GCDC AutoMation Experience) supported by the European Commission. The participants in the i-GAME project - TU/e, TNO, Viktoria of Sweden and IDIADA of Spain - are working together to accelerate the development of cooperative and autonomous driving and the standardization of communication systems and channels.

These are complex everyday traffic situations, in which the interactions between vehicles are key. Working on solutions takes a significant step in cooperative vehicle automation, with the aim of making traffic safer, cleaner and more efficient. GCDC 2016 is part of an integrated plan to strengthen the position of the Brainport region and the Netherlands in the field of cooperative automated driving.

Ten student teams from Sweden, Spain, France, Germany, Latvia and the Netherlands will compete on the A270 between Helmond and Eindhoven in a range of traffic scenarios - like automatic merging, making room for emergency services and automatic turning-off at an intersection. The student team that represents the Netherlands, is the A-Team from TU/e and Fontys.

“The student teams are assessed on teamwork, communication and performance in the different traffic scenarios. We deliberately chose to test on the A270 public road. Researchers often use their own test environments and their own cars. But you don’t really know if it works until you’ve tried it on public roads, when you have interactions with other cars and the road surface”, says Bastiaan Krosse, program manager for Automated Driving at TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research).

Carlo van de Weijer, director of the Strategic Area Smart Mobility at TU/e, is proud that this year’s GCDC is returning to the Eindhoven region: “We’re hosting the Olympic Games of autonomous driving right on the university’s doorstep. GCDC is being held on the A270 between Eindhoven and Helmond - it’s literally a testbed that underlines the strong links between the university and the Automotive Campus.”

The GCDC will be open to the public on Saturday 28 May from 11.00-19.00 hours. On that date an important part of the Dutch Technology Week on the Automotive Campus in Helmond will be a special ‘High-tech Discovery Route’ with activities for young and old alike. 

On Sunday 29 May the GCDC will be held from 13.30-17.30 hours for mobility experts, and will be closed on Monday 30 May with an international I‑GAME congress at TU/e.

Source: TU/e press team